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Subject: Urgent Request for Informal Political Sponsorship/Advocacy and Immediate Actions to Stop Executions in Iran
Dear .......
I am writing to you to request that you take urgent action through an informal political sponsorship, and send a pre-prepared Amnesty appeal to prevent the imminent mass summary execution of protestors in Iran and end the ongoing and widespread arbitrary detention, torture and denial of the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly by the Islamic Regime. As a constituent under your jurisdiction, I respectfully urge you to take immediate action in this highly time-sensitive situation. Whilst we recognise we do not have legal recognition of political sponsorship in the UK, we are asking you to partake informally on the grounds of humanitarianism to advocate for the stopping of and raise awareness of the imminent executions in Iran. I believe that you individually have the power to affect change in line with the calls from the Iranian diaspora, which seek to potentially save Iranians from the inhumane treatment of the Islamic Regime.
As I'm sure you are aware, since the tragic death of Mahsa Jina Amini in police custody on September 16 2022, the world witnessed an outpouring of support for the demonstrators in Iran demanding Regime change in the name of human rights and women's rights. Yet on December 13, Human Rights Group HRNA estimated that some 18,265 had been arbitrarily detained since September [1], and some are at imminent risk of execution. The human rights conditions only worsen once detained, and on November 21, CNN released testimonies revealing sexual assaults on male and female activists in prisons in Iran [2]. Amnesty International has previously publicised visual evidence of beatings, deliberate neglect and ill-treatment of those in prison, showing the dark reality surrounding chronic overcrowding, solitary confinement and torture in inhumane prison conditions as an attempt to garner forced ‘confessions’ from prisoners of conscience [3].
Iranians globally have gone through an extreme amount of trauma and torment in these past three months to amplify the names and stories of those at risk of execution in the face of ongoing censorship of the internet and the senseless murder of innocent Iranians. The recent and traumatising execution of 23-year-old Mohsen Shekari [4] and the public lynching of Majid-Reza Rahnavard (the latter was a 23-year-old wrestler arrested, detained, tortured, tried and executed within 23 days) [5] proved to many that the UN's decisive action to launch a fact-finding mission has not deterred the IR from continuing its human rights violations and the executions only serve as an inhumane prelude to more state-sponsored murders of innocent young Iranian people in the absence of an immediate, strong and coordinated response*. Therefore we ask for your personal support through your status to decisively amplify the stories of those at risk, including the growing number of those arbitrarily detained. Considering that the UN mission serves as a long-term accountability solution, it is in an extension of the UK's decisive stance to vote yes at the UN special session that we implore you to individually, as MPs, take responsibility and further your support to the Iranian people on a humanitarian basis in the way German MPs have done so over the last couple of days.
As UK citizens, we ask that you consider using your status to offer immediate protection for the young lives taken hostage and tortured in judicial and extra-judicial detention centres throughout Iran through the public sponsorship of the names of those sentenced to death or charged with capital punishment, as well as sending an Amnesty written appeal to the head of the judiciary in Iran and the Islamic Republic of Iran's embassy.
As a ‘sponsor’, you can use your status to pressure the IR to halt the inhumane treatment of Iranians. By sponsoring, you can take on the responsibility for one or more prisoners, keep track of any news related to them, and fight for their release while raising awareness by talking to the media/posting online of the 18,000+ arbitrarily detained, showing the despostic Islamic Regime that their attempts to fear-monger through state-sponsored massacres will not go unnoticed. A successful case of public sponsorship campaign includes Iranian human rights defender Abdolfattah Soltani, who was released on November 21, 2018 after more than seven years in prison - through sustained international pressure and the sponsorship of former MEP Elmar Brokis [6].
We urge you to take action to stop this massacre by taking the following steps at the earliest possible convenience:
- To follow this link which attaches a list of protestors who are at imminent risk of being executed including three children sentenced to death, and offer your valuable protection to a young life by stepping forward for advocacy of at least one of the listed imprisoned prisoners and in doing so continue to amplify the growing number of those arbitrarily detained.This list is regularly monitored and updated.
- To send the following linked Amnesty appeal addressed to the IR authorities as an urgent letter to the head of judiciary, and the Iranian Embassy in the UK which calls to immediately quash all convictions and death sentences, refrain from seeking further death sentences, and to grant independent observers from embassies in Iran access to capital trials connected to protests.
- Call on the United Nations to take immediate action to respond to human rights violations against the 18,000 innocent prisoners in Iran and to engage in special procedures to stop executions.
*For your further information, the following is a list of calls to action for the UK Government, that seek to support Iranian people’s fight for freedom in an immediate manner. We hope that you do your part in supporting these calls being addressed, as so far low-hitting sanctions have not deterred the IR:
Demands for the UK Government to support Iranian people
Thank you for your time and attention to this sensitive matter. We ask that you act now and encourage other MPs to do the same through political sponsorship and sending the Amnesty appeal. I look forward to receiving your response in which I ask that you kindly outline how you will be addressing the calls to action above.
Yours Sincerely,
<Title, Name>
<Address>
REFERENCES:
[1]HNRA Daily Figures Update on Iran Protests
[2] CNN report How Iran's security forces use rape to quell protests
[4]Iran carries out first known execution over anti-government protests
[5] Lynching in Iran: Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, Publicly Hanged in State-Sponsored Murder
[6]ISHR proclaims April 8 as "Political Sponsorship Day"
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